Scoring was low in Alabama's A-Day game, but was that indicative of poor offense or good defense?

Either way, a few things were clear Saturday afternoon in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The quarterback race is wide open as true freshman Jalen Hurts showed perhaps the most potential. Second-team running back Damien Harris showed more burst and patience while gaining 114 yards on 20 carries against the second-flight defense.

After missing his first four field goals, Adam Griffith's 21-yarder with 10:55 left broke the scoreless tie. But Hurts' touchdown pass to Derek Kief with 2:48 remaining won it.

White 7, Crimson 3.

With the game on the line, Cooper Bateman got the call and drove the first offense to the 13 with a 25-yard pass to ArDarius Stewart. Two throw aways later, Ronnie Harrison intercepted the potential game-winner in the end zone.

Defensively, Tim Williams remains a nightmare for offensive tackles and the secondary gave little breathing room. Kicking was a bit of an issue with misses from 36, 47, 42 and 52 yards before halftime.

Scoreless after the first half, the first-team offense netted just 21 yards to the Crimson's 196.

"You know, I always say in the spring game when you don't score a lot of points, everybody says you're really bad on offense," Nick Saban said. "Well, how about you're maybe pretty good on defense."

QB competition

Bateman got the start with the first-team offense. A dialed-back offense doesn't help the passers to begin with and there wasn't much sizzle from this group. David Cornwell was the last quarterback to appear after Bateman took the first quarter.

The only real deep ball of the first half from Cornwell to ArDarius Stewart was severely under thrown. Bateman tossed one up for grabs just after halftime into a gaggle of defensive backs. Communication appeared to be an issue a few times with quarterbacks throwing different routes than receivers ran. These are typical for spring games, but still worth noting.

The best throw for the first-team passers was a 33-yarder from Cornwell to Calvin Ridley early in the fourth quarter. Dropped in a basket over defenders, it put the Crimson team inside the 10-yard line for the first time. It resulted in 21-yard field goal that broke a scoreless tie with 10:55 left.

The most notable quarterback play was with the second team. Blake Barnett and Jalen Hurts showed some of the potential along with the draw backs of playing freshman at the position.

Hurts showed why there was growing buzz about the early enrollee. His athleticism is somewhat wasted in a spring game when quarterbacks are two-hand touched down. After taking off a few times, he was tapped down before he would have been tackled if it were live. But there was solid decision making for someone 15 practices into his first spring. Throwing from the run looked natural. It's a matter of consistency moving into the summer.

The game-winner for Hurts was set up by a 32-yard pass to Cam Sims. Again, Hurts looked natural rolling to the right to find Kief for the five-yard touchdown.

"I've been impressed with the young guys at quarterback and their athleticism," Saban said at halftime. "They made some plays. I think we're struggling a little bit on the first team. The first offense is having trouble with the first team defense up front. They're distorting the timing of everything so the quarterbacks haven't been able to operate."

Barnett also showed flashes of his five-star recruiting rating. He fit a nice pass into traffic on the first drive for the White team. Safety Deionte Thompson was breaking on the ball that went for a 13-yard first down to Derek Kief. Later in the half, Barnett was putting together a nice drive, moving from his own 25 to the opposite 25 with a nice 17-yard pass to Cam Sims. But it stalled with a second-down pass that was almost intercepted and a third-down throw away. Using Saban as a blocker while scrambling in the fourth quarter might not have been the best move, though.

The final numbers for the passers:

-- Cooper Bateman:9-for-24, 1 INT, 86 yards, long 25

-- David Cornwell: 5-for-13, 50 yards, long 33

-- Blake Barnett 9-for-16, 112 yards, long 26

-- Jalen Hurts 11-for-15, 120 yards, 1 TD, long 32

Running backs

With all eyes on Bo Scarbrough, the other scholarship running back put together the best number. Harris started fast with six carries for 41 yards in the first quarter.

The sophomore from Kentucky looked patient finding holes and explosiveness that wasn't evident in late-game appearances last season. The Achilles tendon injury to Ronnie Clark makes Harris' role all the more important.

Scarbrough put up big numbers in the scrimmages held behind closed doors but couldn't find running room on A-Day. He finished with 20 yards on nine carries with two catches for five yards while drawing two flags for early movement.

Pass rush

This is harder to measure given the quarterback contact rules, but a few players stood out. Tim Williams, had two quality sacks in the first half beating replacement left tackle Korren Kirven. Cam Robinson will be back for the fall on the offensive line.

Anfernee Jennings got sacks on consecutive snaps in the third quarter with the second defense to finish with three. Christian Miller also got three quarterback touches coming off the edge.

Rashaan Evans' move to middle linebacker didn't impact his numbers. The speedy junior chased Hurts a few times, finishing with one sack but 16 total tackles.

In all there, were 14 sacks. More than half wouldn't have counted if they had to tackle the quarterback.